Follow You Down That Road
by Rosa Lui
Summary: The Civilian Foreign Minister was glaring at Sasuke. Naruto, after considering the delicate diplomatic situation, burped at him. SasuNaru.
1. Follow You Down That Road

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. :3

**A/N: **Written as birthday fic for Acern, who has been my friend for sixteen years. :3 NOT BETA'D. D:

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**Follow You Down That Road**

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Adjusting to life after everything was… strange. Because really, Sasuke thought, there was never supposed to have been an after. From the time he was eight years old, his life had been a means of accomplishing his goal. The future was his brother. That was where everything ended.

Once or twice, his resolve had wavered. At age twelve, finding himself with friends he didn't want, friends he could choose to grow up with and fight alongside - just for a moment then, Sasuke _wanted_.

But then he had left and time had passed and Itachi was dead and Sasuke _wasn't_. It wasn't supposed to happen like that, and he was so furious that he wanted to burn the whole world and go down with it.

But his friends, his stupid friends that he'd hated and scorned and left behind, hadn't let him.

He didn't understand forgiveness. It was something he himself was so very, very bad at.

Naruto had brought him home. And now here he was, trying to find a reason to stay, to live, to start caring again when it all had gone so very wrong last time.

Trying, too, to adjust to peace.

Sometimes Sasuke would start awake in the middle of the night with his heart pounding and breathing harsh, wild-eyed as he scanned the room, unable to recognize where he was. Sometimes even if it was midnight – or one, or two, three, four – he would pull himself out of the cocoon of blankets and lay down on the living room couch, feeling secure with the cushions at his back and a clear view of the room before him.

Or sometimes he would just sit with hands clenched in the sheets, trying to still his panic before anyone could see this tiny, slipping moment of insecurity.

It was then that he would look down at the warm body next to his, trying to feel contempt for the form sprawled unapologetically next to him. Tanned and messy-haired and wearing stupid boxers with swirls on them – Sasuke tried to hate him and _couldn't_, because of the little smile on that soft mouth as the idiot dreamed of ramen or whatever.

Light cast from streetlamps filtered between the blinds, falling in long strips across the bed and lighting up the room in artificial sunrise.

It was peaceful, and Sasuke didn't know what to do. He wanted to run, sometimes. He looked at himself, in a soft bed with _fuzzy ducky sheets_ in a room with warm heating and comfortable security and nothing to hide from (because Naruto sees it all anyway) and wanted to run back into the cold. He was never supposed to be there like this – but he didn't run, and told himself it was because the idiot would find him anyway.

In truth, he got as far as the door once; grabbed his sword and his coat and then frozen, standing and staring down at his stupid shoes for _hours_. He'd thought of Naruto, waking happily in a couple of hours and reaching for him only to find the bed empty and Sasuke's stupid shoes missing – and he'd hated it. He'd hated the _look_ he knew would appear on Naruto's face, and so had turned right around and crawled back into bed.

Sometimes, he suspected that he was happy. He'd been happy once before, a long long time ago, and it wasn't something he was ever supposed to be again. It was wrong, it was stagnant, and it made him want to leave so he could be miserable for a little while.

But then, when dealing with Naruto, 'supposed to be' never really applied.

* * *

When Sasuke came out into the kitchen, Naruto was not there. Sitting at the table, paperwork spread out before him in haphazard piles and acting as a placemat for his coffee and toast, was Kakashi.

Sasuke stared at him, trying to chase the last bits of sleepiness from of his brain, before turning right around and attempting to walk back into the bedroom.

That's when a small, ugly pug dog in a blue sweater trotted out from under the table and plonked himself at Sasuke's feet. It panted happily at him.

"My cats," Sasuke said icily. "live here. I don't want -"

"Pakkun is a good doggie," Kakashi said, doodling idly on the pages before him. "He knows better than to chase your cats, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. The papers on the table appeared to be covered in stick figure porn. "Is there a reason you invited yourself over?"

Kakashi stood. "Breakfast, Sasuke-kun. Naruto is in a meeting with Tsunade-sama, so I might as well treat you."

Pakkun was licking at his toes. "….Fine," Sasuke said, and walked to the door.

"Bare feet?" Kakashi asked delicately, glancing at Sasuke's.

"Let's just go."

Kakashi stood for a moment, watching as he walked outside before closing the door and following him down the path. "Out of morbid curiosity –"

"Don't."

"There's a wonderful invention, Sasuke-kun. It's called shoes."

"I'm fine."

There was a moment of silence. Kakashi frowned down at Pakkun's back, watching the small dog as he trotted happily down the road. "You know," he began carefully, "sometime I make Pakkun wear booties."

Sasuke cast him a vaguely horrified look.

"Cute ones," Kakashi elaborated. "Padded. They feel good on his little doggie paws."

Sasuke closed his eyes briefly, as if steeling himself for the mortification sure to come.

"They also help him walk farther," Kakashi continued blithely. "The booties. If he has them, he can walk for ever and ever, and never stop. Walk until we never saw him again."

He glanced sideways at Sasuke's profile. It was completely blank other than a slight furrow between his brows.

"It's not that Pakkun wouldn't _want_ to stay," Kakashi went on after a moment. "He's happy where he lives. But he used to be a stray – did you know that? And sometimes strays have trouble settling down. So it's a good thing, maybe, that he doesn't always have his booties. Because then at the end of the day, wherever he is, his bare feet will remind him that he has to turn back around and come home."

There was a silence, before Kakashi coughed. "That analogy may have sounded better in my head."

* * *

They found a sushi stand. If Sasuke noticed how the place cleared when he entered and settled on a stool, he ignored it.

"So," Kakashi said as Sasuke scanned the food choices, "Naruto tells me you're thinking of getting reinstated."

"There are several dozen laws forbidding my becoming a ninja again, I think." Sasuke folded his menu and called the waiter over.

"All of which will soon be rendered null and void," Kakashi said easily as soon as the man was gone. "As of now, it seems the only other career open to you is 'professional cat-sitter,' and you never struck me as the type to be content sitting on floral-printed couches in old ladies' homes as Mr. Tibbles begs for his evening meal."

Sasuke just glared.

"Not planning on participating in the ceremony this evening?"

"Not likely, no."

Kakashi shot him a disapproving look from over the rim of his teacup. "Does Naruto know about this?"

"We've discussed it."

"Ah. So he doesn't. That's disappointing. I admit I thought you at least had the courage to tell him."

Sasuke's protest was cut off as their food was delivered.

Kakashi peered at his plate. "It would appear they got your order wrong."

It happens a lot, Sasuke didn't say, because Kakashi would tell Naruto and Naruto didn't need to know, not today of all days. Instead, he said, "You want me to stand there with you, next to all of Konoha's finest as they celebrate their own hypocrisy? No." Even if they _did_ allow him within twenty feet of the podium. Which they wouldn't.

"It's not about them," Kakashi said, "and you know it."

Sasuke took a bite of sushi.

"Naruto wants you to see him as he becomes who he was born to be, Sasuke. He loves this village – _is_ this village - and wants to make it something you'll be proud of. Something _your brother_ would have been proud of."

"….I know."

"Just trying to give some friendly advice."

Because that worked so well last time, Sasuke didn't say, eating his last piece of sushi. "Whatever."

"Ah," Kakashi nodded. "My apologies. Next time I see you're about to do something phenomenally stupid, I won't say anything."

"Right," Sasuke snapped, not looking as he speared the blob of wasabi with his chopsticks and stuck it in his mouth.

"See, I'd been going to warn you about that," Kakashi said merrily, "but I thought you wouldn't want me to."

Sasuke just glared at him through watering eyes.

* * *

By the time Sasuke got back to the tiny apartment, Naruto had already returned. And, Sasuke discovered as he froze in the doorway, he was not alone.

"You remember Gaara, right Sasuke?" Naruto shouted from the other room. "He's here for – y'know, tonight."

Sasuke didn't answer, too busy trying to figure out why the Kazekage was sitting on Rock Lee's lap, why they were doing it on _his couch_, and if he could possibly take a toothbrush to his eyeballs.

Gaara gave him the barest of smirks from where he sat.

"Hello, Sasuke," Lee said, leaning sideways and greeting him with such sincerity that, had it been anyone else, Sasuke would have doubted it was genuine. "Gaara is staying with me for the duration of his visit."

Sasuke bet he was.

"We just stopped by to wish Naruto-kun luck before the ceremony," Lee continued as the two of them moved to stand, "but we wanted to speak with you before we left."

"What about?" Sasuke hadn't spoken to Lee since they were children – and his last memory of the Kazekage was half-forgotten, blurred by the blood he'd been blinking out of his eyes as he attacked the Kage conference. That had been years ago. Lifetimes, it sometimes seemed.

"Tenten told me that Gai-sensei told her that Kakashi-sensei told him that you're not planning to come to the ceremony tonight." Lee said it almost like an apology.

Sasuke thought about explaining that he'd actually said no such thing, but didn't see the point.

"I don't claim to know Naruto-kun as well as you do," Lee said, looking Sasuke straight in the eye. "And I am sorry that I never got to know you, because I admire your skills as a ninja and I respect Naruto-kun's high opinion of you. But for the sake of both your happiness, please do not forget how much you mean to him -"

"You and I are not so different," Gaara interrupted. "We both know that being betrayed by someone who you thought loved you is all it takes to push you over the edge. Don't do that to him."

"Maybe I already have," Sasuke said, knowing it was cruel and not caring.

"You scare a lot of people," Gaara said, unmoved. "I used to have monsters living in my head. You don't scare me. _Show up for Naruto tonight_."

And with that he turned and headed for the door, sweeping Lee along with him.

"Also," Gaara said, pausing at the doorway, "if you hurt him I will crush your skull with your intestines."

Then he left.

* * *

Sasuke found Naruto in the bedroom. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, picture frame in his hands. It was not, Sasuke saw as he drew closer, the old picture of Team Seven, but a framed shot of Jiraiya.

"He should be here," Naruto mumbled. "He would' a wanted to see."

"You're doing what he would have wanted," Sasuke said, finding it surprisingly easy to reach out and thread a hand through the hair at the base of Naruto's neck. "You told me once that that's what matters."

Naruto gave him a faint grin. "Yeah." He swallowed. "Hey Sasuke?"

"What."

"What if –" Face pressed into Sasuke's shirt, Naruto's voice was muffled. "What if I'm bad at it?"

"….This is a fine time to have doubts."

"Hey, I _mean_ it! What if – what if I'm too _stupid_ or just –"

"Then go down to the Hyuuga compound right now and tell Neji you lied, and that he'll never be free. Do you want to do that?"

"No! I'd never, ever go back on my word – I'd fix it, just like I said –"

"Then why would you be a bad Hokage?" Sasuke said simply.

Naruto grinned into Sasuke's abdomen. "Hey… y'know, we got some time before I gotta leave –"

Sasuke swatted his hand away from his belt.

* * *

Naruto had left already when Sai showed up half an hour later. It was getting close to dusk, meaning the ceremony would be beginning in a matter of minutes.

He was in an ANBU outfit – ANBU, not Root – that was elaborate and clearly ceremonial rather than practical. In his hand was a pair of trainers.

"Do you need something?" Sasuke asked, trying and failing to read the serenely blank face of the man on his doorstep.

"I heard about your conversation with Kakashi-sensei," Sai said, unapologetic. "So here. I bought you shoes. For you to put on, of course."

Sasuke caught them as they were flung at his feet.

"What are you playing at?" Sasuke snapped.

"If a pair of shoes is all that is holding you back from leaving, then put them on, walk out the door, and leave. If you are going to leave tomorrow or a year from now or in ten years, just go now and never let me see your ugly face again." All this was said as Sai smiled blankly.

"And if I don't plan to?" Sasuke's voice was quiet. "If I intend to stay?"

"Then put them on anyway," Sai said, "because otherwise you might step on broken glass. Sakura tells me that twenty-one percent of all ninja injuries are foot-related."

* * *

Sasuke arrived as fireworks were exploding in the sky.

He stood at the back of the huge crowd of people of every age, rank and affiliation as they gathered around the base of the Hokage tower, voices raised with shouts of excitement.

Naruto stepped out onto the balcony, resplendent in white robes, and the crowd screamed. Tsunade was beside him, the advance guard of Kakashi, Sai and Yamato behind, and Sakura and Shizune held the Hokage's contract scroll as he bent to sign his name in what Sasuke knew would be scrawling, messy letters.

Gaara was there, surveying Naruto with something like pride as representatives from each of the other villages mingled, ninja, samurai, and civilian alike. There was Umino Iruka, babbling something about allergies as he scrubbed fiercely at his eyes with a handkerchief. The Nara men stood with two ancient frogs in the place, Sasuke suddenly realized, where the elders and Danzo would normally have stood. And in the crowd Sasuke recognized Tazuna, the old bridge builder from that stupid C-Rank mission in the Land of Waves so very long ago.

A hush fell over the crowd, and then there was Naruto's voice, warm and honest and as serious as Sasuke had ever heard it.

"I didn't write a speech," the new Hokage said. "Sorry about that." He paused a moment, as if to gather his thoughts. "A lot of you know me. We've fought side-by-side. I grew up in this village, an'… and a lot of people didn't like me, for a reason I didn't even understand until I was a lot older. It didn't make me hate Konoha. Not ever. It made me want to fix it.

"Because we've made mistakes, in the past. Big, huge mistakes and we've failed _so many people_. We haven't always done what's right. And I'm swearing right now, that's never gonna happen again. No one's gonna get left out in the cold just cause they haven't got anybody. Kids who can't use chakra are gonna get accepted into our schools because they can damn well still fight as well as the rest of us."

There was an exuberant shout from the general area Maito Gai was standing in. Rock Lee, on the other hand, appeared too overwhelmed to even speak.

"Nobody is gonna get stepped on because someone else thinks they're not good enough," Naruto continued, "because a really, really good teacher of mine once told me that those who don't care for their teammates are lower than dirt, and that's something we can't ever, _ever forget_."

Naruto's eyes locked with Sasuke's from across the crowd as it erupted into cheers, the one person who had never, for a second, doubted that Sasuke would be there for him.

* * *

For the first time in the history of Konoha, the Hokage was extraordinarily late to his own after-party.

Sasuke kept to the fringes, waiting for the press of the crowd to lessen before he went to find Naruto.

As it turned out, Naruto found him instead. Sasuke was looking the other way when he felt strong arms wrap around him from behind and a rounded chin settle comfortably on his shoulder.

"There's dignitaries from over a dozen villages and countries here," Sasuke said. "Should you be doing that?"

"Yep. 'Cause I'm the Hokage. I can do whatever I want."

He was glowing, too loud and too orange and exuding joy, a grin like the sun splitting his face.

He was also still refusing to take the stupid hat off, and kept reaching up to touch it.

Sasuke felt an odd sort of pulling around his mouth, as if it was trying to smile all on its own. "I received some visitors today."

"Uh-huh?"

"They seemed to think I needed convincing to attend."

Naruto snorted. "You didn't tell them that you'd already decided, did you."

Sasuke smirked.

"They were just trying to help," Naruto grumbled. "You're such a jerk sometimes." He paused. "Hey Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"I'm Hokage."

"You are." And somehow, impossibly, stupidly, when he should have already lost all faith in the world, Sasuke believed everything he had said in his speech. Believed he would change things. Believed things like what happened to his family would never, ever happen again.

It was overwhelming and it was terrifying.

"So since I'm Hokage," Naruto was saying, "and this is my party, I can do whatever the hell I want, and there's a bunch of old stuffy-looking Hyuuga over there and I really, really wanna piss them off."

"You're outlawing the Hyuuga curse seal. That should do the job."

"Nah, did that already."

Sasuke turned around to stare at him.

Naruto just grinned. "I, uh, signed the order right after the ceremony, before I got here. They're taking it off the whole branch family right now."

"….And they didn't argue?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"They did. I won. But hey, hey Sasuke – there was one thing I kinda wanted to announce to everybody, but I kinda couldn't while I was making my speech."

"Oh?"

And as Naruto dragged Sasuke into a kiss in front of every civilian, chuunin, jounin and foreign delegate in the room, Sasuke realized that maybe, just maybe, he was done running away.

**I adore feedback. ^^**


	2. Folks on the Hill

**Disclaimer:** Not mine. :3

**A/N:** Set 20 minutes later. Written as part of the Timestamp Meme for Ylmik_Wisty. Title from '_Working Class Hero,_' originally by John Lennon and covered by Green Day.

* * *

The Civilian Foreign Minister was glaring at Sasuke.

Naruto, after considering the delicate diplomatic situation, burped at him.

The festivities celebrating the inauguration of the Nanadaime Hokage were in full swing. Fireworks still exploded overhead, and all stories of Konoha's largest public venue overflowed with music, light, and food. Ichiraku Ramen had been dubbed the official eatery of the Hokage administration, and set up camp right outside the entrance. Manned by the whistling old man in his stained apron, steaming bowls of miso noodles were handed out to noblemen in silk brocade robes.

Tonight, from ninja with weapons-laden swaggers to officials and their bodyguards moving with practiced decorum, this was neutral ground. Diplomats, civilians, and foreign dignitaries swept in and out of the entrances, followed by clouds of chatter.

It was revelry, more than diplomacy.

Naruto liked it.

He stretched to reach a plate of _dango_ on the table, the movement jostling the wide-brimmed Hokage hat down over his eyes.

The convenient support Naruto had been leaning against shifted tetchily. "That's it," Sasuke said. "Get off."

"You're comfortable." Naruto grinned, enjoying the breath against his neck as Sasuke spoke. He turned, poking the hat back into place so as to see the face of the man behind him.

Sasuke was glaring with half-hearted moodiness. Naruto's heart skipped a beat. He thought it was probably love.

Sasuke wasn't actually _that_ comfortable, truth be told; too full of hard planes and pointy edges – but Naruto liked leaning on him where everyone could see.

It had been that sort of day.

Wars, debts, bad blood and personal grudges between ninja and their nations were hard to erase. There was still the odd delegate whose glance went immediately to Naruto's stomach, as if the seal would somehow be visible there. There were the diplomats sitting now around Gaara, utterly still in their unease until Lee arrived bringing infectious enthusiasm and a plate of _gyoza_ to share.

But Sasuke was always going to be _infamous_, even here, lounging in casual sweats and sockless trainers. If he admitted it to himself, Naruto knew that Sasuke could be, after all, a big dickface. But his legacy in Konoha would always be as the Last Uchiha, boy genius and traitor; a protégé who had scorned his peers and was now hard pressed to find himself back in the fold. Even worse, Sasuke's reputation abroad was still as a missing nin; war criminal and madman.

It seemed that the Civilian Foreign Minister and his overly-pruned mustaches had decided to make their disapproval known.

Naruto doubted that Sasuke cared much about the snide glances cast his way - on a scale ranked from 'one' to 'Itachi,' the Minister fell somewhere around 'disgruntled frog.' But Sasuke thought he could hide how _normal_ this was now. As if people crossing to the other side of the street when they saw him, or his reinstatement being held up by red tape that didn't _exist_, were all issues Naruto was blissfully oblivious to.

Naruto wasn't.

But Naruto also wasn't just _Naruto_ anymore. He was the Hokage, and he intended to solve these problems with copious amounts of Hokage-approved public Sasuke groping. He had tried at some point to explain this plan to Kakashi, who after a silence had wiped dramatically at his eyes and clapped very, very slowly.

"So you've been reinstated." It seemed like a good time to bring it up, and Naruto said it just loudly enough for all the heads of state in his general vicinity to hear. "As a ninja."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Since when?"

"Two hours ago." Naruto reveled in his next words. "I signed the order in _my Hokage chair_."

"….Get off," Sasuke said again, turning his head like he could hide the near imperceptible tugging at his lips.

"We can get off," Naruto whispered, "_in my Hokage chair_."

Sasuke just snorted and shoved Naruto off of his chest.

* * *

In a world that spun on its proper axis, that left the status quo unchallenged and prescribed to the hierarchies of fate, no one would have been cheering the young Hokage with glasses raised high.

Sasuke knew this.

Hundreds of years from now, they should have instead remembered him as the boy with the beast in his stomach. They should be telling stories of that boy's friend, who betrayed his village and destroyed the world. Of a teacher left disappointed and a girl left alone as her brilliant friends tore one another apart. That was how it should have been.

Sasuke believed in the inescapable manipulations of destiny - he had borne the weight of the Uchiha crest since birth. The Sharingan would always be drenched in the blood of fratricide and caught in the universe's puppet strings. Those were things that were meant to be.

Not good things. Not this vibrant warmth by Sasuke's side, slurping obscenely from a beer can.

Sasuke had believed in a lot of things before. Stupid things, naïve things that left him burned and make to look an utter fool.

But this – but _this_ –

This wasn't fate. This was Naruto, and all the force and strength of his will.

And so this was not the stillness of a war-torn village. Across the room, a samurai general was sipping tea in solitary enjoyment after having greeted Naruto with a bow no lower than that granted to the Yondaime many, many years before. The Mizukage, conversing with her retinue, expression cool but not displeased. Killerbee, whose great arm had pulled Naruto in for a hug like some bratty little brother. Lesser Kage, diplomats, representatives, all brimming with contentment.

Sakura was swaying over her bottle, laughing hysterically in Ino's ear. Neji reclined like a little prince with a cup of sake in one hand, forehead bare and unmarked. Gai, drunk on happiness, wept openly to Kakashi, who was feeding nibbles to a self-satisfied Pakkun. And the Kazekage, face impassive, may or may not have been doing something unmentionable to a red-faced Lee under the table.

None of them, in the end, had grown up to be the people they should have been.

They were the generation of castoffs. They were the unwanted, born to walk paths of mediocrity, stagnate in servitude, or fall into madness. Instead they had risen to the top by clawing through mud with splintered fingernails, the blood and sweat they shed as witness. They had all caught themselves one breath before drowning - or, Sasuke amended, been pulled back from the brink by –

Naruto rose, slipping from Sasuke's lap to greet a latecomer diplomat.

In his absence, the lights and cheery press of the party felt intrusive. Sasuke drew into himself, hands steady – an improvement – as he swiped a lone sake bottle and took a sip, nursing it as he leaned against the wall.

Across the crowd, seated cross-legged around a similarly food-laden table, Naruto's friends were eyeing him. He watched as they conversed, comfortable and familiar with one another. Then Sakura leaned across Tenten to whisper something in Neji's ear, and Lee struck a determined pose.

Sasuke's stomach sank.

Maybe they were just gossiping. Gods knew everyone did enough of that, and by now Sasuke knew how to keep his face blank. _Don't let them see, not your fears and insecurities and definitely not the way you flinch when they mention your brother_.

It was fine. The words and looks were harmless. It was better than the alternative, the next step, which would involve an invitation to –

Sakura got up on her knees and waved him over, smile large on her face.

Well, shit.

Any other day, he would just have left. He would have grumped home to sit in the cool darkness, alone with his cats. Until he stopped wanting to vomit. Until the crawling between his shoulder blades eased and he could breathe again.

Instead, Sasuke stood and slipped away through the crowd, walking through the balcony doors and staying utterly composed until he passed outside into the relative darkness.

Sakura was likely looking after him with sad eyes, like she thought he was damaged. Naruto would have just said he was moping.

Sasuke was not, he decided firmly, moping.

The day had cooled rapidly. He let the breeze whip at his bare arms and short sleeves, fingers gripping the railing that surrounded the balcony. The cold brought him back to earth, the way it had been doing since he was seven years old and woke up one day to realize he was never going to be happy again. It soothed something ugly in him that would never entirely go away, lingering in the place of what had been Naruto's childhood friend. The rage, the seed of which, the root, had grown here in Konoha but the rest of which had been birthed somewhere in a cave as he stared at his brother's corpse.

It figured that he had left Konoha to get rid of his weaknesses, and returned more fucked up than when he left.

Sasuke focused on the little things. The red paint under his hands, worn and flaking. His shoes, beaten and scuffed, scraping the wood beneath. Fireflies in the grass far below.

It took him a moment to realize that he was not alone.

The boy standing beside him was tall, with long dark hair caught back in a ponytail and slim fingers tucked under his arms against the wind.

Sasuke stared.

"Too much noise in there," the boy said after a moment, like he was agreeing with something Sasuke had never said. "It gets…."

"Smothering," said Sasuke. He took another sip of sake and wondered if he was going insane.

"I can't do it," said the boy. "Drink tea like we weren't all just at war. My father _died_. My little brother died. And they didn't die for some divine plan, they're just fucking _dead_. I want everyone to know how _wronged_ they were because they were _good men_ but no one cares because everyone's lost someone, and they were all _good fucking men_."

"They deserved better," said Sasuke because he could think of nothing else.

"Your family deserved better, too," the boy whispered.

Something settled in the pit of Sasuke's stomach, and he realized for the first time _why_ this boy unnerved him so. The resemblance to Itachi was obvious, but he wasn't the Itachi of _now_, the one who'd had black nails and been cloaked in red clouds. He was Sasuke's Itachi. The one he kept tucked away in the corner of his mind, the one he missed. The one who _terrified_ him. Itachi at fourteen, who had carried Sasuke on his back and teased him and poked him in the forehead, until Sasuke came home one day to find –

The Itachi who had still worn an unmarked Leaf _hitai-ate_.

Of which this boy wore none, Sasuke noticed. No badges or marks to indicate any affiliations at all.

"Things are different now," Sasuke said, surprising no one more than himself.

The other boy snorted. "You would know. You're the last of your kind – you could gather an army with the sweep of your hand and start your own damn village, under your own banner, the way Konoha should have been right from the start. And instead you spend your time sucking off the _jinchuuriki_ like he's not the embodiment of everything that destroyed your family's honor."

Sasuke wondered what they'd think if they could see him now. (He was able to remember them now, sometimes. He could indulge in _what-ifs_. He could imagine his mother's kind smile without seeing her disemboweled on their living room floor.) It was likely that they would utterly disapprove.

It surprised him to realize that he really, really didn't give a shit.

"Explain," said Sasuke, ignoring the previous statement in favor of figuring out what the fuck was going on.

The boy turned away, chin pillowed on his arms. "It was wartime." He paused. "So we live with the Hokage's decision. And the decisions Hokage will _keep_ making."

He was good, Sasuke had to admit.

The problem was, as always, Naruto's inherent refusal to live down to expectations.

Because now, _the Hokage's decision_ meant things like Neji Hyuuga's unmarked forehead. It meant a Hokage who wouldn't _ever_ –

_Itachi, young and alone with a dead man's eyes and his orders ringing in his ears _–

The world through Sasuke's eyes was not a nice place. It ought not to be; he had seen it at its worst, _been_ its worst. But reality was no longer lies and tricks, or a madman's scaly hands. Reality was the smell of hot spices permeating the house in the morning, cat fur on the counter and sheets that needed changing more nights than not.

"Sorry," said Sasuke slowly. "I'm not going to lead your revolution."

The silence next to him had an undercurrent of vague mortification. Sasuke supposed that ninja were supposed to be sneakier about the whole _I know you're trying to manipulate me_ thing. But he had played this game before, and he was sick of it.

"And you don't look like my brother," he added, turning away.

"We'll kill the Hokage with your help or without," the boy – or whoever was under that _henge_ – shouted after him.

"No," Sasuke muttered. He closed his eyes. The breeze was comforting. "No, I don't think you will. He will rip your heart out of your chest, fix it and shove it back in before you realize that it was ever fucking gone. You will hate yourself for a while, and then you'll swear allegiance to him."

Then Sasuke signaled for the ever-present ANBU to drag the man away, because someone had let Sasuke walk off in anger once, and in retrospect, that may not have been the wisest decision.

* * *

Sasuke returned to find that the party had reached an even greater state of drunken revelry.

He clenched his fingers around the neck of his sake bottle until he heard a faint _crack_, and then walked over to Naruto's friends. It was only as he got there that he realized there was not, in fact, a space for him to sit. Then Sai, expressionless, moved slightly to make room next to Sakura, gifting him with some cushion and a rescue from humiliation.

Sasuke sat.

Across the table, Neji was smirking at his Main Branch relatives like a cat with a mouthful of canary. They shifted uncomfortably, and Neji smirked wider.

"That was quite a show earlier," Shikamaru said in bland tones, reaching across Sasuke to nab the soba dip.

Sasuke wondered what this invasion of his personal space was supposed to be – torture? Studied disrespect?

He had an uncomfortable feeling that it was simply how friends acted with one another.

"Yes," he said just to see the startled look on Shikamaru's face. Besides, it _had_ been quite a show.

Sasuke was _content_ here, and he felt - fine with that.

_Happy_ with that.

Happy. Fuck.

Happy was the warm weight on his chest at night and wild blond hair poking him in the eyes. Happy was Naruto's loud annoying laugh chasing the dark away until the sun rose the next morning, or warm lips in his hair, or the strip of tanned skin at his neck where the white Hokage robes fell open.

It was a boy in a classroom, scruffy and small with a big mouth and a big heart. It was that boy now, grinning broadly at a weepy and mortified Iruka as the room cheered him, then toasted him, then cheered him again.

Sasuke wanted to take Naruto home and –

The Hokage spotted him through the crowd and moved toward him, stopping to tower over him like a big stupid smiley sun.

Sasuke's eyes closed.

"So that's it," he mumbled.

Naruto frowned. "That's what?"

"Nothing." Everything.

They'd only just begun.

* * *

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